Armed Forces: Complaints
(asked on 5th February 2025) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many service complaints have been received by (1) the Army, (2) the Royal Navy, (3) the Royal Air Force, and (4) Strategic Command, in each of the last five years; and of those, how many have not been upheld.
Information regarding how many Service Complaints have been received, and how many have not been upheld, is publicly available and can be found in the Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces Annual Report statistics available at the following link: https://www.scoaf.org.uk/annual-statisticals-tables. Please note that the most recent year for which information is currently available is 2023.
The data you have requested is shown in Annex A, below, by Service. Please note that Complaints are recorded by Service and not Command and therefore no data is available for Strategic Command.
ANNEX A Number of Royal Navy Service Complaints*, by complaint category, 2019 - 2023 | |||||
Year | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination1 | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other1 | All complaint categories |
2019 | 69 | 24 | 32 | 37 | 162 |
2020 | 49 | 37 | 22 | 37 | 145 |
2021 | 56 | 36 | 21 | 36 | 149 |
2022 | 77 | 59 | 20 | 42 | 198 |
2023 | 95 | 55 | 43 | 90 | 283 |
% annual growth | 23% | -7% | 115% | 114% | 43% |
* including Royal Marine Service Complaints | |||||
1 Prior to 2022, victimisation Service Complaints were recorded under category "Other", rather than under "Bullying, harassment or discrimination" | |||||
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Number of Army Service Complaints, by complaint category, 2019 - 2023 | |||||
Year | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination1 | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other1 | All complaint categories |
2019 | 171 | 131 | 55 | 100 | 457 |
2020 | 179 | 130 | 46 | 76 | 431 |
2021 | 129 | 135 | 27 | 76 | 367 |
2022 | 191 | 128 | 39 | 124 | 482 |
2023 | 204 | 147 | 50 | 213 | 614 |
% annual growth | 7% | 15% | 28% | 72% | 27% |
1 Prior to 2022, victimisation Service Complaints were recorded under category "Other", rather than under "Bullying, harassment or discrimination" | |||||
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Number of RAF Service Complaints, by complaint category, 2019 - 2023 | |||||
Year | Career Management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination1 | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other1 | All complaint categories |
2019 | 44 | 39 | 27 | 37 | 147 |
2020 | 63 | 31 | 24 | 35 | 153 |
2021 | 73 | 61 | 36 | 63 | 233 |
2022 | 96 | 40 | 25 | 94 | 255 |
2023 | 129 | 60 | 53 | 86 | 328 |
% annual growth | 34% | 50% | 112% | -9% | 29% |
1 Prior to 2022, victimisation Service Complaints were recorded under category "Other", rather than under "Bullying, harassment or discrimination" | |||||
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Number of Royal Navy* closed Service Complaints, by outcome and complaint category, 2023 | |||||
Outcome | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other | All closed Service Complaints |
Complaint fully/partially upheld | 27 | 25 | 13 | 28 | 93 |
Complaint not upheld | 36 | 19 | 9 | 27 | 91 |
Other outcome | 36 | 14 | 12 | 21 | 83 |
Total | 99 | 58 | 34 | 76 | 267 |
% fully/partially upheld in favour of complainant | 27% | 43% | 38% | 37% | 35% |
% not upheld | 36% | 33% | 26% | 36% | 34% |
% other outcome | 36% | 24% | 35% | 28% | 31% |
* includes Royal Marines | |||||
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Number of Army closed Service Complaints, by outcome and complaint category, 2023 | |||||
Outcome | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other | All closed Service Complaints |
Complaint fully/partially upheld | 104 | 70 | 29 | 75 | 278 |
Complaint not upheld | 50 | 61 | 11 | 47 | 169 |
Other outcome | 79 | 42 | 14 | 46 | 181 |
Total | 233 | 173 | 54 | 168 | 628 |
% fully/partially upheld in favour of complainant | 45% | 40% | 54% | 45% | 44% |
% not upheld | 21% | 35% | 20% | 28% | 27% |
% other outcome | 34% | 24% | 26% | 27% | 29% |
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |
Number of RAF closed Service Complaints, by outcome and complaint category, 2023 | |||||
Outcome | Career management | Bullying, harassment or discrimination | Pay, pensions and allowances | Other | All closed Service Complaints |
Complaint fully/partially upheld | 28 | 17 | 17 | 24 | 86 |
Complaint not upheld | 62 | 22 | 13 | 29 | 126 |
Other outcome | 20 | 19 | 13 | 23 | 75 |
Total | 110 | 58 | 43 | 76 | 287 |
% fully/partially upheld in favour of complainant | 25% | 29% | 40% | 32% | 30% |
% not upheld | 56% | 38% | 30% | 38% | 44% |
% other outcome | 18% | 33% | 30% | 30% | 26% |
Source: Tri-Service Joint Personnel Administrative System |